"Here's a video recently uploaded to YouTube. Be warned: at around 1:00 in is a long, graphic depiction of a man beating his daughter with a belt, apparently for downloading games and music. The man, according to the video's uploader, is William Adams, a family law judge in Texas. The uploader is his daughter, Hillary—the teenager in the video."

tl;dr

it's like the it gets better kids and the little chinese toddler in the alley and the cat that lady put in the trashbin and all the other people who need justice in this world are getting just a little bit closer to wrenching it out of the hands of their abusers.

color me hopeful?

Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:44 pm

Sage FrancisSelf Fighteous

Joined: 30 Jun 2002
Posts: 21671

Some fucked up shit.

A family judge. Amazing.

Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:51 pm

xGasPricesx

Joined: 23 May 2008
Posts: 1593

Yeah, this is incredibly fucked up. I really hope this woman gets some justice, and this dude better be fired by yesterday.

Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:57 pm

Confidential

Joined: 23 Jan 2004
Posts: 2040

Fuck this guy. The mental abuse was just as awful. The youtube video say that the girl had cerebral palsy and a passion for technology. I sincerely hope she goes on to live a rewarding and fulfilling life.

I don't really feel like watching some guy beat his mentally handicapped daughter so perhaps someone could tell me why there's a video of it?

Wed Nov 02, 2011 12:29 pm

Marcus Forealius

Joined: 31 Jan 2005
Posts: 553

Certainly better late than never. I wasn't initially aware this was recorded back in 2004 and she waited 7 years prior to making the video public.

I can't imagine how ugly all the other days with these people must have been for her.

Wed Nov 02, 2011 12:42 pm

Lants

Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2234

I heard about this and couldn't believe it was real. I hope the parents get what's coming to them. I can only image what the kid went through to actually get to a point where she wanted to film what they might do to her.

Thu Nov 03, 2011 1:47 am

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

xGasPricesx wrote: Yeah, this is incredibly fucked up. I really hope this woman gets some justice, and this dude better be fired by yesterday.

I really hope there isn't a statute of limitations on what this motherfucker was doing. He obviously deserves to lose his job, but he also needs to be imprisoned. This is just sick.

Edit: I did a little googling to see what was happening with yes. As yet legal action has not been taken, but a vigilante campaign has been launched against William Adams. What I think is most remarkable is that his daughter is saying that he needs professional help. This is a remarkably objective and forgiving attitude. You could even say it's quite loving.

thanks for circling back with an update C-8. i originally linked to the reddit forum that the daughter started and where she originally published the youtube link, because i was interested in a) being able to watch the 'vigilante' action you describe boil up in real-time against her abuser, and b) watch her own real-time responses, comments, and concerns to the reaction, including her assertion that she would like her father to be offered rehabilitation and not punishment (along with the flesh-mob verifying her identity and the veracity of the video and the story -- at one point, there was an imposter who had appeared to hack her youtube or reddit account as the story was breaking)....

one of the mods here changed the link to the youtube video itself, which at this point reflects most of the timeline and background that was on the reddit forum. and at this point, the story has made it to the front pages, so it's moot....

anyhow. that was what was more interesting than the video itself, for me personally. the video itself, while horrifying, disturbing and worthy of its own response (legal and otherwise)...is....well, i mean....i don't need to look far, online or elsewhere, to see people brutalize one another. that's not news and i'm not interested in having it in my eyelids. but this incident should give as much pause to the little household dictators of this world as gaddafi's slaying did for the tyrants in the big palace seats. that's news to me.

Thu Nov 03, 2011 2:31 pm

xGasPricesx

Joined: 23 May 2008
Posts: 1593

Judge Adams responded to the attacks yesterday.

“In my mind, I haven’t done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing,” Adams said. “And I did lose my temper, but I’ve since apologized.”

I can't tell if he's struggling to rationalize it in his own head, or if he really believes what he's saying. This is also a person who was more than likely beaten as a child himself, and I think it's somewhat important to keep that in perspective. It certainly doesn't excuse his behavior at all, and I still think he should be fired and, at the very least, undergo extensive therapy. This isn't an isolated incident in this country though, I'm right around this girls age and I had plenty of friends who were beaten fairly regularly as punishment. None of their parents were family law judges, and none of them had a physical disability, but it's still the same concept.

I don't know, after seeing how this girl has been handling it and reflecting on it a little myself, I'm not as comfortable with making this man a sole target. I think this issue is much bigger and by pinning it all on him, it kind of defeats the purpose of the conversation. I understand the importance of symbols in cases like this, I just feel like if we put all of our frustration and anger about this issue into him, and he does get convicted or something, then the conversation ends, because we won the battle. I'd hope that this whole thing brings about a much broader conversation about the issue of child abuse in our country, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:23 pm

T-Wrexp00ny tang

Joined: 30 Jun 2002
Posts: 6410
Location: Detroit, Michigan

Well, if we can't not judge him as a person, can we judge him like as a judge?

Should somebody like that be in charge of custody cases?

Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:31 pm

xGasPricesx

Joined: 23 May 2008
Posts: 1593

T-Wrex wrote: Well, if we can't not judge him as a person, can we judge him like as a judge?

Should somebody like that be in charge of custody cases?

He should definitely not be in charge of custody cases, or any other family law cases. I know that was kind of unclear in my last post, didn't mean to suggest he shouldn't be "judged" as a person or a judge (which I hope he won't be for much longer). I just am kind of uncomfortable with the amount of internet vigilante justice that's been going on, not in this thread, but in the "usual suspect" places of the internet. This guy definitely needs some serious help, especially if he really believes that what he did wasn't wrong. I guess I was just worried about a lot of people putting all their eggs in one basket with this guy, and the conversation fading away after this child abuser has been brought to justice. Also, I felt I was little hasty with my first comment in this thread, and I was thinking out loud in my second post about how this issue might be a little more complicated.

This sort of thing is acceptable and legal in Texas isn't it? I thought they were allowed/encouraged to hit kids there.

Looking at comments like this one:
"I have news for all the Hollywood liberals, followers of Dr. Spock, and all other sheeple that don’t believe in corporal punishment. We don’t need or want permission from government sissies or liberal fruitcakes to discipline our children.
...
She has reached the age of adulthood without reaching the adult level of maturity."

And the thing allowing teachers to beat children with tools that has been going on. The effort to get parental permission to beat kids:
"Republicans defeated the bill on a 69-73 vote Wednesday, arguing it infringed on the autonomy of school districts. "
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/state&id=8127486

I know Texas isn't exclusively a bunch of backward dickheads, but it does have more than it's fair share.

Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:42 pm

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